How to write a PL/SQL procedure with x input parameters and input/ouput of x parameters combined

Question

I have to make a procedure that will create me autonomously a STUDENT_ID with the input parameters as Name, Surname, Gender, Date_Birth, State.

Example :

• Name: John
• Surname: Smith
• Gender: M
• Birth Date: 17/05/1996
• state: California

Output:

STUDENT_ID is : JHN-STH-M-17596-CLFN

I put "-" to make it see better in the question but in the output it should be JHNSTHM17596CLFN

I have made 5 separate procedures that will calculate name, surname ecc.. I want to write a procedure that will calculate the STUDENT_ID using the procedures I made (in order) , and also have an "input" parameter and input/output "student" that will "print" the STUDENT_ID

procedure  student_id     (surname in varchar2,
                           name in varchar2,
                           gender in varchar2,
                           date_birth in varchar2,
                           state in varchar2) is
begin

....


dbms_output.put_line ('Student_ID is :');

This code is "supposed" to be the input parameter, I don't know if its written correctly

Answer 1

To me, it looks as if

• you should "convert" procedures that calculate every part of the STUDENT_ID into functions
  • Why? Because - as it is now - procedures have to have an OUT parameter so that they could return what they calculated. And that's nothing but a function
• pass pieces of information to each of them
• get the result
• concatenate result pieces into the final STUDENT_ID values

Something like this:

function f_name (par_name in varchar2) return varchar2 is
  retval varchar2(20);
begin
  retval := whatever code you have to find it
  return retval;
end;

function f_surname (par_surname in varchar2) return varchar2 is
  retval varchar2(20);
begin
  retval := whatever code you have to find it
  return retval;
end;

etc.

procedure student_id (par_surname in varchar2, par_name in varchar2, ...)
is
  l_student_id varchar2(30);
begin
  l_student_id := f_name   (par_name)    ||'-'||
                  f_surname(par_surname) ||'-'||
                  f_gender (par_gender)  ||'-'||
                  ...
                  f_state  (par_state);
                  
  dbms_output.put_line('Student_ID is: ' || l_student_id);
end;  

Finally, as all those functions and procedure deal with the same problem, it would be nice to put them all into a package.